A double-square painting is a painting made on uncommonly large

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es, which have one

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that is twice the size of the other.

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

used double-squares almost exclusively during the final weeks of his life in Auvers, in June and July 1890.These terms were coined by Ronald Pickvance, one of the leading experts in Van Gogh-research. Other artists who have painted double-square canvases include

Charles-François Daubigny Charles-François Daubigny ( , , ; 15 February 181719 February 1878) was a French painter, one of the members of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of impressionism. He was also a prolific printmaker, mostly in etch ...

Puvis de Chavannes Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Bea ...

,Hammacher, A. M. ''The Ten Creative Years of Vincent van Gogh,'' Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1968. page 175 and Ivon Hitchens.

Description

In a double-square painting, one dimension of the canvas is twice the size of the other, so that the canvas is the shape of two adjoining squares. The overall effect of this is stability, and the

compositional In semantics, mathematical logic and related disciplines, the principle of compositionality is the principle that the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its constituent expressions and the rules used to combine them. ...

challenge is to avoid monotony.

Use

Prior to Van Gogh, artists such as Charles-François Daubigny and Puvis de Chavannes had used canvases of similar proportions, and Van Gogh was aware of this.

Van Gogh's Double-square canvases

Vincent van Gogh - Mademoiselle Gachet au piano

used double-squares almost exclusively during the final weeks of his life in Auvers, in June and July 1890. To arrive at this size, Van Gogh combined the legs of two standard sizes: the 50 cm leg from a size 12 and the 100 cm leg of a size 40

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. The result was a ''double-square'' of , and from this size, easily the ''square'' could be derived by using two 50 cm legs. His choice of this size points into another direction from previous artists; his ''double-squares'' can easily be combined with size 30 canvases to more elaborated ''décorations'', and his ''squares'' extend these possibilities. File:Vincent van Gogh - Tree Roots and Trunks (F816).jpg, '' Tree Roots,'' July, 1890,

Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum () is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opene ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

(F816, JH2113) File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 038.jpg, ''Wheat Fields near Auvers'', June–July 1890, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

File:Wheatfield - Van Gogh.jpg, ''Sheaves of Wheat'', 1890,

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...

(F771) File:Van Gogh - Feld mit Korngarben.jpeg, ''Field with Stacks of Grain,'' July 1890,

Beyeler Foundation The Beyeler Foundation or Fondation Beyeler with its museum in Riehen, near Basel (Switzerland), owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler, which features modern and traditional art. The Beyeler Foundation museum includes a s ...

, Riehen, Switzerland (F809) File:Vincent van Gogh - Undergrowth with Two Figures (F773).jpg, ''Undergrowth with Two Figures'', June 1890,

Cincinnati Museum of Art The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...

File:VanGoghThatchedCottagesByAHill.jpg, '' Thatched Cottages by a Hill,'' July 1890,

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

(F 793, JH 2114) File:Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) - Wheat Field with Crows (1890).jpg, '' Wheat Field with Crows'', 1890,

File:Vincent van Gogh - Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds - VGM F778.jpg, ''Wheatfieldd Under Thunderclouds'', July 1890,

File:Van Gogh - Landschaft mit Schloss Auvers bei Sonnenuntergang.jpeg, ''Landscape with Castle Auvers at Sunset'', June 1890,

(F770) File:Vincent van Gogh - Landscape at Auvers in the Rain.jpg, ''Landscape at Auvers in the Rain'', July 1890,

National Museum Cardiff National Museum Cardiff ( cy, Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd) is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Welsh Gov ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 021.jpg, ''

Daubigny's Garden ''Daubigny's Garden'', painted three times by Vincent van Gogh, depicts the enclosed garden of Charles-François Daubigny, a painter whom Van Gogh admired throughout his life. Van Gogh started with a small study of a section of the garden. Then ...

'', 1890, Hiroshima Museum of Art,

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...

Subsequent uses of the dimensions

Ivon Hitchens worked primarily in double-squares at certain periods in his career.

Footnotes

References

* Pickvance, Ronald: * Zemel, Carol: {{Vincent van Gogh Paintings by Vincent van Gogh Series of paintings by Vincent van Gogh 1890 paintings

Description

Use

Van Gogh's Double-square canvases

Subsequent uses of the dimensions

See also

Footnotes

References